JEDDAH, 13 April 2005 — Saudi Arabia broke through the African juggernaut with a gold medal in the shot put at the start yesterday of the centerpiece athletics competition in the 1st Islamic Solidarity Games.
The Kingdom also claimed a gold medal in taekwondo.
And in an encouraging day for the Saudis their special football team for the handicapped crushed Iraq 10-1 to advance into the final today against Iran who downed Algeria 5-2 in the other semifinal match yesterday at the King Abdul Aziz University’s indoor hall here.
The host cagers also moved within a victory of sweeping the Group C matches by overpowering Somalia 103-36. They now have 6 points from three matches with only Kuwait the last obstacle to their qualifying for the quarterfinal as top team of the group.
Kazakhstan, meantime, continue to dominate swimming by winning all but one of four golds disputed while 14-year old Malaysian Lumab Bafan wowed the crowd with a gold medal-winning effort in the 10-meter platform in diving that added to Malaysia’s three-meter springboard victory on Sunday.
That was not the only gold on the day for the Southeast Asian country as Danial ruled the 400 meters freestyle for his second gold in as many days having also won the 200 meters freestyle Monday.
The 100 meters backstroke, 100 meters freestyle and 100 meters butterfly were all scooped up by Kazakhstan swimmers Sanklaf, Eugene and Rustom. Egyptian Haytham Hazim and Tunisia’s Anwar ibn Naser were the silver and bronze medalists respectively in the 100 meters backstroke.
Saudi swimmer Ahmad Safwan Al-Kudmani settled for the 100 meters freestyle silver, while Egypt’s Ayman Kutb took the bronze.
Another Egyptian took the silver in 100 meters butterfly when Ahmd Abdu finished ahead of eventual bronze medalist Edar of Kazakhstan. Turkey and Tunisia bagged the silver and bronze in the 400 meters courtesy of Etkal Mandal and Muhammad Mudji.
Sultan Al-Hibshi, a massively built shot putter, flung the iron ball to a distance of 18.97 meters to give Saudi Arabia the gold medal ahead of Iranians Sayed Mahdi and Ayman Ibrahim who clinched silver and bronze at 18.73 and 18.27 respectively.
Later in the day, Majed ibn Hussein Jilwa completed a Saudi golden double when he won the under 85 kg category in taekwondo over Morocco’s Hadifi Abdul Majeed. Indonesia’s Stayo and Jewi Berbin of Senegal got bronze medals.
The other taekwondo gold went to Iranian Khamees Hamed in the under 84 kg with Saudi Ali Juhar taking the silver and Tunisia’s Suhail Salem and Senegal’s Makromoba getting bronze medals.
Moroccan Khaled Al-Tahri was crowned the games’ fastest man at the King Abdul Aziz Sports City in Makkah when he outsprinted everyone in the 100-meter dash including Saudi Mukhlid Al-Otabi who bagged the silver medal. An Ugandan runner whose name was not made available as of presstime took the bronze.
Tunisian Hussein Al-Subaie distinguished himself as the first winner in athletics when he ruled the 20-kilometer walk ahead of Algeria’s Musa Onwanouk and Malaysia’s Muhammad Abdul Rahman. After the 400 meters heats yesterday, the qualifiers include Saudis Hamdan Al-Bishi and Khalid Bashir, Abdullatif Ghazawi of Morocco and Sudan’s Najmuldeen.
Winning the team gold in tennis was Egypt, Iran snared the silver while Saudi Arabia and Algeria received bronze medals.
In football, Iran and Oman qualified for the quarterfinal from Group A by beating Sudan 4-0 and Tajikistan 3-0 yesterday at the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium here.
Elsewhere, the quarterfinalists in handball competition had been completed. From Group A were Saudi Arabia and Morocco, Group B Egypt and Jordan, Group C Bahrain and Tunisia and Group D Algeria and Syria.
Azerbaijan look set to follow Saudi Arabia as Group C qualifier in basketball after beating Kuwait 74-66. Tunisia and Algeria virtually qualified from Group D following victories over Tajikistan 113-28 and Libya 80-70. Chad beat Iran 123-62 in a Group B match to keep alive their hopes of qualifying, while Syria scored their second win from Group A at the expense of Sudan 72-53.
— Additional input from Ebtihal Mubarak & Mahmoud Ahmad
